South Nyanza Sugar Company Limited v Pelesia Adhiambo

The Court reaffirmed the principle in Alwi Abdulrehman Saggaf v Abed Ali Algeredi that new points of law may not be raised for the first time on appeal, to prevent unfair surprise and preserve the benefit of lower courts' insights. Wachira v Ndanjeru confirms the discretion is exercised only where full justice can be done without unresolved factual inquiry. Since the capacity issue was never canvassed below, entertaining it would deprive the Court of the lower courts' assistance and unfairly surprise the respondent.

The Court adopted the classic statement in Kenya Breweries Ltd v Godfrey Odoyo that on second appeal the Court confines itself to matters of law unless the courts below considered matters they should not have, failed to consider matters they should have, or the decision is perverse. The sole ground advanced - competence of the suit for want of a grant - was treated as a point of law, but one barred by the new-point rule.

Counsel for the appellant himself identified the competence of the suit as the single central issue and addressed only it in writing. The Court therefore treated the remaining grounds - breach, quantum of damages, interest, and mitigation - as abandoned, leaving the new-point question as the sole determinant of the appeal.